


Shiv

by YaminoTenshi202



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 22:15:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaminoTenshi202/pseuds/YaminoTenshi202





	Shiv

Inspired by [this Tumblr post](http://unchangeablexangel.tumblr.com/post/28406867248/someone-should-make-this-a-full-blown-fic-so-i-dont)  


* * *

Steve didn’t expect a knife to fall the other so quickly, so suddenly after beginning to take off the Iron Man armor, heavily damaged and possibly damaging him.

"Tony!"

He ran over, the last remaining unfriendlies being taken care of by Thor and the Hulk. Natasha had taken Clint up in the Quin-Jet to have the aerial advantage…

Tony should have been safe in the armor. The armor that he was pulling off, remembering the schematics that Tony had shown him before, at all of the connecting points so that the armor could possibly be repaired. Please, please, be okay.

"…How bad is it?" Tony’s voice was hoarse, his mouth open in a panting motion. The helmet was coming off and Steve could see how pale the other was, his face covered in sweat.

"…" Silence surrounded them and Steve, lifting off the chest plate completely to look at the wound that had come in through the side, saw that the knife had come under his left shoulder blade, cutting through skin, muscle, and even bone all the way across Tony’s body…

Through his heart.

"I’ve seen worse." Tony wouldn’t die… He couldn’t…

"On a dead man?" Steve flinched at that, having his hold on Tony’s leg and unknowingly squeezing on a severe wound. It wasn’t bleeding now, but it definitely hurt.

"Ow, okay, not funny. I get it." Tony leaned his head back once Steve loosened his grip, an apologetic look on his face. Everything was hurting and he was getting dizzy…

"Fuck."

Steve continued to take apart the suit until Tony was in his full-body suit, the black garment meant to be a bit of a second armor torn from the wounds.

"Am I dying?"

Steve pulled him close to his chest, adjusting him so that there was so pressure on the knife, nothing moving it - pulling it out nor pushing it in.

"Stay calm, Tony. Okay? You’re going to be fine."

"I’m okay." Tony felt as though he should reassure the other in some way. "I’m calm."

The soldier’s hearing wasn’t failing him now, besides the fact that the only thing that he could hear and focus on was the shallow breathing that Tony was making. Oh, God. It punctured a lung when it went into him. It wasn’t letting him breathe, the though apparent as Steve saw Tony’s windpipe deviating to the right.

"The medics are on their way."

Was he trying to reassure Tony or himself?

"…" His field of vision was narrowing a bit.

"Steve."

The soldier reached up a hand to gently pet the other’s hair.

"Yeah?"

"I lied. I’m not, not—okay. Calm."

The shrapnel wasn’t going into his heart, not now. The shards were trapped in his vena cava, attracted to the arc reactor in the center of his chest.

Not a single terrorist was pressing his face into the water, making him drown and his lungs fill with water. The wheezing he was making was his fault.

Oh, God. He was an idiot. He could’ve hidden himself before taking off the armor, but JARVIS wasn’t operational and the metal was crushing him and he was an idiot just like Howard had told him and…

"…I’m scared."

He didn’t want to waste it.

"I don’t want to die." The hand petting his hair cradled it and his soldier -hissoldier - kissed his forehead gently.

"You’re not going to die."

Oh, God. He was tired… He could just close his eyes for a few moments.

"Tony." Steve saw those eyelids droop, covering brown eyes - eyes that he loved to see, mirth and love flooding them, in the morning at breakfast - before Steve made them go up again.

"Stay awake, Tony, okay?" He reached down a hand, Tony sitting on his folded legs so it was okay, to grab Tony’s left.

"Stay with me."

"…I love you, Steve—" He was wheezing more heavily now, his mind making it akin to how full his lungs had been with water in the desert. Funny. Water almost killed him out there. Well played, Ironic Universe.

A man out of time and love… just to lose it after gaining it again.

"No. Stop, Tony. I know what you’re doing, just stop it. You’re going to be fine. Stop saying good-bye. You don’t need to say good-bye because you’re going to be fine." The medics were coming soon, Steve could hear, only a few blocks away. Natasha was saying something over their communication feed, but he was deaf to it now.

"Tell me you love me, too." Tony turned his head a bit, ignoring the hard material of Steve’s glove and just relishing in the fact that it was Steve’s hand. Steve was holding him as he slipped into the water, into the dark, again. Warm and dark, like hugging his mother just after she turned out the lights to go to bed, nice and warm and safe…

"You know I do. I love you. Please don’t—You can’t—" He held him close. The sirens were so very close. Why weren’t they here? Weren’t they supposed to take the pain away? Was he having an asthma attack or was he jut panicking now? Bucky and Peggy were gone now and Tony - _his_ Tony, that filled up all of the holes that had been left inside of him and gave him more love than he could have dreamt of having - was going to…

"I don’t want to be alone again."

He had cried for Bucky, mourned. Not like this.

Tears were cold on his face. Tony spotted them, the salty droplets making streaks on Steve’s dirty face, dirty from the punches and sweat.

"…M’ sorry…"

So tired…

"Don’t close your eyes, please Tony." No, no…

"Tony."

The wheezing had stopped. It had ended just a few moments ago.

"Tony look at me."

The sirens were here now. They merely looked upon the scene with a solemn expression. One man came forward, professional in his visage, and pressed two fingers to Tony’s carotid.

"…"

Was he dreaming?

"…"

Was he still in the ice?

"…"

The ice was better than this.

The paramedic pulled away and turned to the others, announcing the event that just took place, telling them to record the time.

Steve pulled Tony close. Nothing else existed nor mattered. Just the two of them… Both breathing and living and loving and happy…

"…Please."

He never got a reply.


End file.
